Carry & Go Briefcase BBQ review

The outdoor eating experience is one of the highlights of the great British summer. That is, unless you're at a festival. The festival eating experience is mostly best described as an ordeal.

If at all possible, you'll want to eat food you can trust. So, your very own barbecue is the ideal way to build up energy for the day of moshing ahead.

Problem is, most barbecues are chunky, heavy metal constructions that don't lend themselves to being carted around. Not so the Briefcase BBQ.

Takeaway barbecue

As its name suggests, the Briefcase BBQ is a briefcase-shaped fold-up barbecue that provides a 48cmx35cm cooking platform made from stainless steel.

Putting the Briefcase BBQ together is an exercise in simplicity. On one side of the pressed steel base are a pair of legs that simply fold out to provide a stable platform. On the other side are the cooking platform and a flattened, hinged windbreak that unfolds to provide extra depth for the charcoal.

Building the barbecue is a breeze; putting it down again is equally straightforward. Cooking... well, that depends on you.

Non-disposable hero

Why would you get one of these instead of several cheap disposables? The environment for starters; the size of the cooking platform it provides; the fact that it won't go cold after cooking three sausages.

But there are issues. It may be just 5cm thick but the briefcase barbecue weighs a good couple of kilos – and that's a whole lot extra to lug from the car to the campsite.

Also, there's an issue of convenience. Finding charcoal at a festival can be tough, and finding food suitable for barbecuing can be tougher.

But these are quibbles. This is a genuinely portable barbecue – and that's a very good thing.